Martin Bútora Receives Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award

22/09/2014

Martin Bútora, the former Slovak ambassador in Washington and currently a foreign policy advisor to President of Slovakia Andrej Kiska, is the latest laureate of the Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award (CSTA). The award is presented by the Slovak Atlantic Commission, the member of the Central European Strategy Council, and a Czech non-governmental organisation Jagello 2000. Martin Bútora received the award at the NATO Days in Ostrava, Czech Republic, that took place on 20th-21st September.

The Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award celebrates personalities who contributed to strengthening the transatlantic cooperation. “I am very glad that it is Martin Bútora who received this award. His work is a testimony to lifelong dedication to transatlantic values. As an ambassador to the United States he significantly contributed to Slovakia becoming a member of NATO,” said Róbert Vass, CEO of the Central European Council.

“The significance of the award is growing in the context of the ongoing Ukraine crisis. It reminds us that our prosperity and security cannot be taken for granted even 25 years since the fall of Communism but they have been achieved thanks to people with strategic vision and determination. It was a mission of a great generation and we have to build upon it,” added Róbert Vass.

Martin Bútora is Honorary President of the Institute for Public Affairs and a former advisor of President of Czechoslovakia Václav Havel. In 1999-2003, he acted as Ambassador of Slovakia to the United States.

The second awardee of the latest CSTA was President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski. In the past, the Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award was presented, among others, to Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Czech Ambassador to the US, Alexander Vondra, or former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia and currently a member of the European Parliament, Eduard Kukan.

You can read the laudatio for Martin Bútora by Jiří Šedivý, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to NATO, below.